Cheesy Scalloped potatoes are the perfect comfort food… creamy, rich and cheesy; but they always take so long to cook! Not anymore! This recipe uses a method that will show you how to make this cheesy goodness in about half of the time of traditional scalloped potatoes recipe!
My mom taught me an easy little trick that speeds up the cooking of the potatoes and has them ready on time every time! If you just pop them in boiling water for just a few minutes before you put this together, you will cut down your cooking time by as much as an hour, saving time for delicious main dishes like meatloaf or pork chops!
What Are Scalloped Potatoes
Scalloped potatoes are a classic side dish made with thinly sliced potatoes layered and baked until hot and bubbly. A classic scalloped potato recipe doesn’t include cheese and is made with a roux (white sauce).
While similar to au gratin potatoes, there are some key differences:
- Potatoes au gratin have a cheese sauce (instead of a white sauce), and are most often made with layers of onions and potatoes.
- Classic scalloped potatoes don’t contain cheese sauce or cheese
- Cheesy scalloped potatoes use a white sauce and are layered with cheese
How Do You Make Scalloped Potatoes
Scalloped potatoes are easy to make and delicious but they can take a very long time to cook, not anymore!! In this quick recipe, I have a couple of tips to reduce the baking time from about 90 minutes to 45 minutes!
Tips to reduce cooking time:
- Potatoes: Boiling the sliced potatoes for a couple of minutes makes this recipe quick as the potatoes don’t have to cook as long and they’re already warm going into the oven.
- Sauce: These cheesy scalloped have a quick and easy shortcut white sauce to save time (and effort). I use condensed cream of mushroom soup and layer with cheese and onions! If you’d prefer you can make your own Homemade Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup or use cream of chicken or cream of celery!
To Make Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes:
- PREP:
- Slice the potatoes (I use a mandoline slicer to make it quick) and drop the potatoes into boiling water for 5 minutes (this is a huge time saver).
- Mix the white sauce ingredients together.
- LAYER:
- Layer the sauce, potatoes and cheese in a 9×9 baking dish
- Top with more cheese
- BAKE:
- Bake the cheesy scalloped potatoes until golden and bubbly.
Can You Freeze Scalloped Potatoes
Potatoes can sometimes change texture when frozen, so scalloped potatoes taste best when made fresh. If you plan to freeze them, make sure you have already baked them first. Raw potatoes can still oxidize in the freezer, causing them to turn grey.
Cheesy scalloped potatoes should last up to a month in the freezer. The trick to ensuring they taste great is in the reheating, like most potato side dishes, we prefer to reheat in the oven with a little bit of fresh cheese added on top!
More Perfect Potato Sides
- The BEST Mashed Potatoes – Creamy, dreamy, delicious!
- Scalloped Potatoes Recipe – the classic!
- Scalloped Potatoes and Ham – our favorite during Easter
- Crock Pot Scalloped Potatoes – so easy
- Easy Cheesy Potatoes – the best comfort food
- Easy Oven Roasted Potatoes – crispy and delicious
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds yellow potatoes
- 1 can cream of mushroom chicken or celery soup
- 1 cup milk
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- black pepper to taste
- 1 small onion thinly sliced
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Wash potatoes and slice ¼″ thick (no need to peel). Drop into boiling water for 5 minutes. During the last minute, add sliced onions to the water. Drain.
- Meanwhile, combine soup, milk, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl. Microwave until hot.
- Put a little bit of the soup mixture in the bottom of a greased 2 QT casserole dish, a 9×9 pan, or an oven-safe pan. Layer ½ of the potatoes, ½ of the soup mixture, and ½ of the cheese. Repeat layers ending with cheese.
- Bake at 375°F for 45-55 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Side Dish
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This sounds delicious, going to make this tonight.
Here in my neck of the woods Ramps are in season this recipe works wonderfully with them add sausage to the mix Delicious Thanks for the recipe !
These were a hit at Easter dinner. Sooooo yummy! Easy to make.
My mom’s famous scalloped potatoes recipe is pretty darn close and its fabulous! This is the closest recipe I’ve ever seen to it, it was kind of a shock to see something so similar for the first time after all these years. We like them browned on top(not just done), adds more flavor!
This is delicious!!
I saw the recipe name.
Sounded too good to be true.
I tried it anyway. I was making dinner that night..
I added extra cheese (I’m a cheese hound) and my wife insisted on adding chopped onion. It was delicious.
Though, in the future, I will leave out the onions. They aren’t the best addition, when eating this as “leftovers” .
I’m not sure why it wasn’t given a 5 star rating by me
Absolutely the worst scalloped potato recipe I have ever tried. After following the recipe to the letter my potatoes were severely undercooked even after recoiling for an additional 30 mins. Will not recommend this recipe to anyone. If I could rate it 0 stars I would.
These potatoes are boiled first and then baked. If you baked them for an additional 30 minutes that would mean they were boiled on top of being cooked for almost an hour and half which should be more than enough time to cook sliced potatoes.
As this recipe has been made (and highly rated) hundreds of times, I am wondering if there was another issue for you. What kind of potatoes did you use? Do you have an oven thermometer by chance? Was your dish 2qt (if it’s smaller, the casserole is thicker and could take a bit longer but still should’ve been cooked through). What thickness were the potatoes cut to?
Do you think I could put this together today and then bake it tomorrow because the potatoes are partially cooked? Alternatively, if I cooked it today could I just reheat it tomorrow? If so, what temperature and how long?
Hi Jackie, we have not tried prepping it in advance but that should work. The next day, I would let the dish sit at room temperature while the oven preheats. You could also reheat it the next day. I would bake it at 375°F for 20-30 minutes or until heated through.
Delicious and fast method for scalloped potatoes!
I made the cheesy potato casserole and they came out delicious!! The only addition was a bit of left over truffle cheese and I did combine some fresh herbs, rosemary and thyme… about a tablespoon. The best casserole results I’ve ever had… Thanks for the recipe.
Ok but needed more flavor.
That’s what I thought. More garlic powder or a clove, Basil, parsley, Sea salt, More pepper.
Those sound like delicious ways to up the flavor, thanks Judy!
Made this last night. Unfortunately it’s now in the trash. Boiling the potatoes does reduce overall cook time but only by a little. I’d accept more work if it was tasty. But this was incredibly bland to us. Plus, 50 minutes at 375 resulted in way overcooked potatoes with burnt cheese on top.
Could have been my Breville small smart oven being so close to the heating elements. Regardless of the texture/burnt cheese, this just tasted bland.
I’ve enjoyed other recipes from her. So will probably still browse.
But definitely sticking to my tried and true O’Brein hash browns scalloped potatoes recipe. Same ingredients but using hash browns out of the freezer and adding half cup butter and a cup of sour cream. Truly 5 minutes to throw together. 90 minutes cook. Sooooo yummy.
I have the Breville smart oven as well and because it’s a toaster oven it does cook quicker and hotter than a regular oven (especially if using the convect/super convect settings). In this case, I would suggest reducing the temperature. As for flavor, I do recommend sharp cheddar and salt & pepper to taste. Other bold cheeses can be added as well (such as parmesan or swiss).
Hello Jan, I must say that I tried this recipe by pre-boiling the potates, adding, ham, onions, and guess what I added on mascarponi cheese, and it came out spectacular. My husband who us a potatoes lover had second. Hmmm. Dont give up, try it again..
Glad you enjoyed this recipe, Pam!
Was so good! I wasn’t sure how it would turn out with the canned sauce but tried it bc I was in a hurry. Tasted so good I’m not sure I want to make my own sauce now! I added cubes of ham and a corn in each layer too. So good!
This dish looks delicious! Can the recipe be used without boiling the potatoes?
Thank you
Lori
Check out this recipe for scalloped potatoes that doesn’t boil the potatoes. You can follow the instructions there. Enjoy Lori!
I par boiled the potatoes. They were delicious! I may try the scalloped potatoes recipe and add cheese.
Thank you so much for the recipe and for responding to my inquiry!
Lori
So glad you love the potatoes Lori!
I made this for Easter dinner and they were DELISH! I made 4X the recipe so it filled 2 9X13 casserole dishes. I used red potatoes instead and what a fantastic dish!
Everyonee asked if they could get the recipe and take some home!
It is really a cross between Au Gratin Scalloped and Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes. Definitely recommend!
If I’m feeding 7 people do I double or triple the recipe
The recipe is 6 servings, so you could add half a recipe, or double it and possibly have some leftovers. Enjoy Michelle!
You say one can…how many ounces?
Hi Jenna, we use a 10.5 ounce can of soup.
My family loves these scalloped potatoes. The first time I made this dish I tried cheddar soup as we didn’t have any of the soups listed. It is really good with the cheddar soup! My family and I prefer it with the cheddar soup.
Sounds delish Lindsey!!
Par cooked potatoes in the instantpot on a steamer basket for 2 min high pressure,quick release. Faster than boiling and doesnt remove all the startch from the potatoes so your dish wont get runny. Worked perfectly! Great recipe! Thanks!
Hi Holly. I came across your recipe sight accidently, while looking for a recipe, similar to my mom’s, for scallop potatoes, made with Cream of Mushroom soup. I definitely will be trying your recipe. I know your recipe calls for 2lbs of yellow potatoes. Can you please tell me how many potatoes I should use, or how many do use use. Thanks. I have bookmarked your site, so I can also try several of your other recipes. They all look so good.
2 lbs of potatoes will be approximately 5-6 medium potatoes (this can of course vary a little bit).
I rarely comment or rate recipes, however this one is amazing!! My family is super picky so usually when trying something new I mix a few recipes together to get to something I know everyone would enjoy. I love potatoes but my husband and daughter are rice lovers… I took a leap with this one they would like it, and seemed simple enough that if they didn’t i didn’t waste to much time and effort trying the dish. They LOVED IT!!! My husband will not quit talking about how good they were and I HAVE to make them again! The only thing I changed was dicing the onions small, sautéed them for a minute and added them to the sauce. My daughter doesn’t like onions so I have to “hide” them so she doesn’t realize she’s eating them. This dish will definitely be made again soon!!!
Thank you for making a comment Micki! It makes my day to hear how much you and your family love these potatoes.